By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
Crude oil production from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was cut by 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the month of March when compared to what was obtained in the month of February.
This is according to the Monthly Reuters Survey, which revealed on Friday that operators in Kurdistan, an oil-producing semi-autonomous region in Northern Iraq, suspended some production activities as a result of a halt in exports from the Mediterranean and also as Angola carried out some field maintenance.
Using a survey through the tracking of supply to the market, among other parameters, the 13 member-countries of OPEC produced 28.90 million bpd in March.
During this period, 10 out of the 13 OPEC producers, who are part of the OPEC+ pact, saw their compliance with the quotas jumping to 173 percent of pledged cuts in March, which rose up from the 169 percent obtainable in February.
The biggest drivers of the lower OPEC output were two of the OPEC+ participants, which are Angola and Iraq.
Angola, which has already been severely lagging behind in its production quota, saw output further decline in March as a result of field maintenance on the Dalia crude stream.
Iraq, on the other hand, halted on March 25th and several foreign oil firms operating in Kurdistan have announced in recent days that they were shutting down production as storage has hit its capacity, while exports are still halted.